Leave a Light On

Hubby & I have always been comfortable with sleeping in the dark.  We felt no need to leave any lights on in the house overnight.  For this reason we decided not to start putting one on overnight when the girls were born.

We went along quite nicely for 2 years before Freya suddenly developed a fear of the dark, so we started leaving the landing light on for her when she went to bed.  We'd then turn it off when we went to bed & everybody was happy.....until about a year ago.  Freya then started waking up in the middle of the night & asking us to put the light back on, so we just left it on all night (energy saving bulbs were a MUST!).  Abby has also picked up this fear of the dark, which became ever so apparent when we had a power cut recently - oh my goodness, the panic & terror that came from them both was awful.

The trouble is, now we find that the light disturbs us at night & we don't sleep very well at all.  Light bulb moment (get it?!!) - how about we get them both night lights for their bedrooms?  We've been looking around everywhere for months for plug-in night lights.  There were battery-operated ones everywhere that were quite cheap but we decided that the cost of batteries was probably not worth it.  The plug-in ones that we found seemed to be around £20-£30 each, which was not ideal when we had to buy two of them & we haven't really got a lot of extra money.  So, imagine our delight when we found some perfect lights in Ikea the other week.

The lights cost £6 each & we spent £4 on the energy-saving bulbs - £16 for two lights, we thought, was an absolute bargain!!!

Here's the one in Abby's room.....

We put it down a but lower so that she could switch it on & off herself.  Here it is when it's turned on....

Here is Freya's light....

and turned on....

These have been the perfect solution!  We haven't had to have the landing light on, so we have been sleeping a bit better, & the girls have had their lights on all night (sending a soft pink glow across the upstairs!).

The lights are plastic & I was a bit worried about them getting hot after being on for so long but I checked after the first night & they were not hot at all - phew!

xxx

Balance

I am a dreamer.  An idealist.  I will spend hours dreaming up our perfect life, perfect home, perfect everything.  I am also a bit obsessive about everything.  When I get an idea about something in my head I will spend hours day-dreaming about it, researching it, trying to get as much information as I possibly can.

We booked our wedding just over a year in advance of the date.  For that year I became a wedding-obsessed nutcase.  I bought EVERY wedding magazine available EVERY month in the run-up to our wedding day.  I'm not exaggerating.  I dread to think now how much money I wasted on all of those magazines that, let's face it, showed more-or-less exactly the same things each month anyway.  I was desperate to soak up every picture, every idea I could lay my hands on.  We were extremely fortunate that my parents paid for our wedding, but even then it wasn't as if we had a never-ending supply of money to spend on a humongous, gargantuan wedding.  In fact, we knew exactly what we wanted & we were able to plan it all very easily (no bridezillas in sight!).  Yet, I was obsessed with weddings as a whole.  I literally lived in a wedding bubble. 

As our lives changed my obsessions changed.  When I became pregnant for the first time I bought the baby magazines, spent time on the pregnancy websites; when I started on my quest to become "Domestic Doris" my addiction changed to everything housekeeping-related; now that we've moved & I've discovered Pinterest I'm seeking all things home-decor related as well.

While all of this keeps me focused, it is a hindrance to my life - it stops me from actually DOING any of the things that I dream about.  Sometimes I actually find that I've overloaded myself with all of this information that the thought of DOING any of it exhausts me!  I am aware that the more time I spend in my little dream-world, the less time I have to actually LIVE my dream.

I am trying to DO more of the things that I want to do, & in doing so I find that I don't need to spend as much time with my head in the clouds.  In turn, I have also found that I have more energy the more I do.  It really is true - if you want something, only YOU have the power to go out & get it, it won't come to you.

Dreaming is great, but DOING is better - it's all about having that perfect balance of the two.

xxx

Cable Organisation

Have you ever been on Pinterest?  If you haven't then do so at your own risk!!!  Many an hour has been wasted looking at fantastic photos & gathering fabulous ideas to make your life a little bit easier.

I found a brilliant idea on there (I can't remember who exactly it was from) about organising cables.  The table in the corner of our Living Room that we've just replaced contained all manner of charging & data transfer cables.

Using my label maker I decided to label all of the cables so we know exactly what they're for:

It's a small thing, but it makes me feel more in control of the stuff that's left in our storage boxes!

xxx

Living Room Update

After a last-minute trip to Ikea the other day we have made a couple of updates to our Living Room.

When we moved in this coffee table was left here:

We've really found it useful but I was getting fed up with constantly having stuff dumped on here & then left there (the photo was taken on a good day!!!)

We also had a small table in the corner of the room, which was where the laptop sat along with the router, phone & a whole host of other bits & pieces that were kept in the box underneath.  Even the wiring for all of these electrical goods were getting on my nerves!!

Here's another, slightly closer photo of this dumping corner!

Anyway, we found the perfect (& cheap) solutions to these little problem areas in Ikea!  First of all, the coffee table has been replaced with a white one, which has made the room look cleaner & brighter, but has also given us an extra shelf underneath to hide the TV remotes etc whilst leaving the top looking clear!!!

A bargain for £14!!!

We also bought an Expedit shelving unit to go in the corner to replace the table we had:

Wow!  Look!  No junk!!  Not only have we been able to hide the collection of stuff, we've actually gained surface space so that everything on top doesn't look as cluttered as before & we've also added extra storage space with the boxes.  The unit cost £20 & the boxes cost £2.50 each (we already had one so only had to buy 3 more for the unit).

For the grand total of £41.50 the difference made to this room is amazing (to me anyway!)

xxx

Remember...

that despite having spent all morning tidying up all of the children's toys upstairs & downstairs that they are having fun:

Really, they had fun...

Also, when it comes to replacing dried-up Play Doh, remember to buy Moon Dough instead - fortunately for me, it was Moon Dough that was spread all over the floor & it hoovers up like a dream!!!!

I hope you've had a lovely weekend, whatever you've been up to.

xxx

Last Weekend

Well, we got back from my parents' house on Tuesday after spending a long weekend in Berkshire.  We had a really lovely weekend.  We managed to see a lot of my gorgeous niece & nephew as well, which my girls were really happy about.

On Saturday morning we took all 4 children to a local Play Centre & spent a couple of hours watching the girls run around like wild things while my 7 month old nephew looked on, desperate to be able to join in!  I did take a few photos but it seems that none of them really turned out very well - who knew that children wouldn't stay still long enough to get a non-blurry picture?!!!!

My Sister-in-Law cooked a delicious dinner for us all on Saturday evening, which was really nice.  She fed us home-made lasagne followed by apple & rhubarb crumble - yummy!!!

We went to visit one of my old school friends & her family on Sunday morning.  It was so nice to catch up with them - the last time we saw them we had only just found out that I was pregnant with Abby, so that was well over 2 years ago!!!  They have a 2 year old daughter (who was only about 6 weeks old when we last saw them) & had a son back in November - the recipient of baby blanket #5.

Sunday afternoon was then spent out in my parents' garden with the girls blowing bubbles - the weather was beautiful, albeit still very cold!!!  Yummy Sunday roast followed (beef with yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes & vegetables) & chilling out with Mum & Dad, Sister-in-Law & children.

I took the girls to visit my Grandparents on Monday morning.  This was quite emotional as they are currently living in a nursing home - my Grandpa is unable to see very well or move at all really & my Grandma is suffering from severe dementia.  I don't really see them very often &, to be honest, they don't even remember who I am or when they last saw me anyway, but I still think it's important to at least try to visit when I'm in the area.

The girls spent more time playing with their cousins in the afternoon.  The only half-decent photos I was able to get all weekend were these ones of the toys the girls were playing with nearly all weekend:

It was nice to see everybody but it was also really good to come home - that's the first time ever I've actually felt like that, so this must really feel like "home" to me!

xxx

Paperman

I watched this via Loobylu's blog this morning & had to share it.

Have a lovely weekend.  We are off to my parents's down in Berkshire for the weekend.

xxx